By Sam Walker SamWalkerOBXNews.com
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that tells the National Park Service to charge visitors who are not residents of the United States higher prices for entry fees and passes to help fund long-delayed construction and improvement projects nationwide.
And the order demands a review of recreational access rules, telling the Secretary of the Interior to “take steps to rescind any that unnecessarily restrict recreation in national parks.”
No specifics have been released about how much the surcharges would be, or when they would go into effect.
The order issued July 3 titled “Make America Beautiful Again By Improving Our National Parks” says international visitors must pay more to enter parks such as Wright Brothers National Memorial, which charges each person, ages 16 and older a fee at the vehicle entrance off U.S. 158 in Kill Devil Hills.
Of the 475 parks around the country, 106 charge an entry fee like the one required to enter the site of man’s first powered, heavier-than-air flight.
And visitors from other countries would likely have to pay more to climb the Bodie Island and Cape Hatteras lighthouses, purchase an off-road vehicle permit, stay at one of the four campgrounds operated by the National Park Service campgrounds, or use the Ocracoke marina boat docks at Silver Lake, which are all in Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
It is also not clear if the surcharge would be required to be collected by privately-run concessionaires that operate in the United States’ first national seashore, such as the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center and Avon Pier.
“From the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon to the tranquility of the Great Smoky Mountains, America’s national parks have provided generations of American families with unforgettable memories,” Trump said in the order. “It is the policy of my Administration to preserve these opportunities for American families in future generations by increasing entry fees for foreign tourists, improving affordability for United States residents, and expanding opportunities to enjoy America’s splendid national treasures.”
Of the 2.8 million visitors to the Outer Banks in 2023, the most recent estimate available, around 3%, roughly 84,000, were from other countries.
Canada accounts for about 50% of international travelers to the region, according to Outer Banks Visitors Bureau statistics.
Coastal Review reported in April that a sizable number of Canadian visitors had already cancelled trips to the Outer Banks over tensions spurred from Trump previously calling for annexation of Canada and increased tariffs.
The order also calls for United States citizens to have priority access to reservations at parks, and rolls back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the Park Service.
Trump’s order tells Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “develop a strategy to increase revenue and improve the recreational experience at national parks by appropriately increasing entrance fees and recreation pass fees for nonresidents in areas of the National Park System that charge entrance fees or recreation pass fees.”
“Charging higher entrance fees to foreign tourists is a common policy at national parks throughout the world that supports both conservation and affordable access for residents,” The White House said Thursday in a follow up fact sheet.
“Increasing fees for foreign visitors will also ensure fairness,” the Trump Administration said. “American citizens fund national parks and public lands with their tax dollars, yet they are currently charged the same rate as foreign visitors who do not pay taxes, meaning that American citizens pay more to see their own national treasures than foreign visitors do.”
The White House said the Park Service’s maintenance backlog stood at $14.9 billion in 2020, and has since grown to $22.9 billion.
A budget proposal released in June by the Department of the Interior said a surcharge will help bring in more than $90 million, but did not detail how it would be generated.
“There could be a billion-dollar revenue opportunity without discouraging visitors,” Burgum said during a House Committee on Natural Resources oversight hearing in June.
That same budget proposal would slash the Park Service budget by more than $1 billion, the largest cut in history.
And it follows Trump signing into law on July 4 a budget reconciliation bill that rolls back $267 million of previously committed funding for national park staffing.
The National Parks Conservation Association released a report last week that shows the Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff since January.
Around 1,000 Park Service employees were laid off in February as part of cuts led by the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The July 3 order directs Burgum to take “appropriate actions to grant American residents preferential treatment” including for permitting and access lotteries.
That would apply to waterfowl hunting blinds located soundside in the Bodie Island District of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which are assigned by a random drawing each day during the hunting season.
And that could mean U.S. citizens would have first crack at making online reservations through Recreation.gov for campsites, which is required for the Oregon Inlet, Cape Point, Frisco and Ocracoke campgrounds.
Also included in the president’s order is for Burgum to “especially scrutinize all recreational access rules or other restrictions promulgated or enacted during the prior administration.”
Over the past 25 years, off-road vehicle access within Cape Hatteras National Seashore has undergone significant regulatory changes aimed at balancing public access with the protection of sensitive coastal habitats and wildlife.
In the early 2000s, growing concerns over the impact of off-road vehicle use on nesting shorebirds, sea turtles, and dune ecosystems led to increased scrutiny from environmental groups and legal action.
A court-ordered consent decree temporarily limited ORV access in response to lawsuits.
The National Park Service implemented an interim ORV management plan during the President George W. Bush Administration in 2008, followed by a final rule in 2012 that formally established seasonal closures for nesting, and buffer zones around sensitive wildlife areas.
A major shift came during the President Barack Obama Administration when the NPS introduced mandatory ORV permits and user fees for the first time in the park’s history, which required drivers to purchase a 7-day or annual ORV permit to access designated beaches starting in 2012.
Subsequent adjustments in 2014 and 2017 further extended seasonal ORV routes, and adjusted wildlife buffers to improve visitor experience while maintaining ecological safeguards.
Trump’s order also rolled back a memorandum President Obama signed in 2017 to promote “Diversity and Inclusion in Our National Parks, National Forests, and Other Public Lands and Waters”, which was also directed at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Additional reporting for this story provided by Joy Crist of the Island Free Press.
